Test - II

Rohit started to slowly moved towards me without casting any spell which was very odd. I expected him to cast from the distance like most European duellers so as to have space to dodge. This rang warning bells in my mind and made me extra attentive. I saw a lot of magic from his core moving towards two places in his body. His hands and legs. He created a fist and magic started concentrating around it. His feet also had a high concentration of magic. All this was too weird for me.

Suddenly he launched towards me and closed in on me very quickly. He was closing on my at inhuman speeds and was infront of me in an instant. I could see that he was moving in to punch me. I quickly dodged the punch to the face and move back and tried to create space between us. But he was quicker. I saw his other hand going towards my stomach. I did not have time to dodge. Just as I was going to use my hands to block his punch to my stomach my danger sense told me that it was not a good idea. I had no time to think and reflexively acted. I transfigured my shirt into a iron armor with spikes on it.

Rohit did not seem to notice the armour and punched me in the stomach very hard. Just before the punch hit me, I used his lack of concentration to cast a stunning and banishing spells on him.

I did not have time to see the effects of the spell since the punch launched me into the mountain wall behind me. I hit the wall hard and fell on the ground and groaned. I did not expect such a huge force behind the punch. It was like the chakra enhanced punch used by ninjas in the Naruto anime. Using magic to power the punch and increase movement speed. I did not know something like this was possible.

The armour took the brunt of the force but some of my ribs had cracked. The armour itself was dented and was hurting me so I quickly changed it back to my shirt. I regretted allowing him a chance to close up on me. I couldn't move without hurting right now so I started using my free hand to heel those cracked ribs wandlessly.

On the other side it seemed like my spells did not do much to him at all. He was a little shaken but that was it. He was standing calmly and looking down at me from his location.

I had to find time for the healing to complete so I asked loudly "What in the Bloody hell was that? How was the punch that strong? Why didn't my spells effect you?"

Rohit took the bait and replied "I specialise in using magic to reinforce my physical capabilities. That punch is the result of that. I expected the match to be over in that single punch. You have good reflexes. Transfiguring your shirt into a armour that quickly. You are good. Also I am resistant to weak spells hence those spells did not do much to me."

The last sentence was bad news for me. If he was resistant to weak spells then lots of ways I had to subdue him were out of consideration. Since he did not use a wand I also could not use Expelliarmous to win the match like Harry in the canon.

I said "Thank Merlin I created the armour otherwise my ribs would have been destroyed and I would have died. Why did you use that much force? I thought killing was not allowed? And were those spikes on the armour effective?"

Rohit replied "It would have not killed you. Our healers would have fixed you up in a day. And those spikes were too weak to do anything. Good try though."

I had already healed my ribs by that time. The cracks were small otherwise I would have been forced to forfeit. I stood up and dusted myself and said "Thanks for the complement. Now its my turn to attack."

Most of the strong spells that I knew were of lethal kind so I could not use them here too. I did not like long drawn out duels and liked to finish fights quickly hence most of my spell repertoire was of lethal kind. In this duel my options were limited and I had to improvise to survive the duel.

I casted 'Bombarda' on the mountain wall and a small part of it got destroyed. Giving me ammunition to attack with. I then started flinging those stones at hight speeds towards him with my free hand. While I was doing that, using my wand I transfigured those stones into swords and knives.

Rohit was now trying hard to save himself from the dangerous projectiles. He started casting some spells in Hindi or some other language and started deflecting and destroying the projectiles. I kept it going for a few minutes until I was out of ammunition just to waste time and tire him out. He was slowly moving away from me which was good since I did not want to be a punching bag for him ever again.

Protecting himself from the continuous rain of projectiles had frustrated Rohit. In retaliation he started sending unknown spells towards me. I could use shield charm but since the spells were unknown to me I did not know if the shield will hold or not. So I decided to both use the shield and dodge.

I used my strongest shield charm, The Aegis charm to protect myself and note which spells were block able and which were not for future use. While holding the shield charm using wandless magic, I started returning fire using my wand.

Hence for some duration numerous spells were exchanged between us. His strong point was in his physical strength and I was easily able to avoid his spells. After some time I noticed that he was using the exchange to get closer to me. I could not allow that to happen. I was sure that he will not allow me to use the projectiles like last time so I had to do something else. At that time I noticed that he was not shielding my spells but instead dodging them. Behind him were the projectiles he had dodged earlier. The transfiguration had been cancelled and they were rocks again. This gave me a good idea.

Under the guise of attacking, I sent a spell that to the rocks that brought all of them together. Another spell and I transfigured the bunch of rocks into a rock tiger. Another spell and the tiger was animated and it started moving towards Rohit to attack. The noise made by the tiger was hidden by another spell so Rohit did not noticed it. He was concentrating on getting close enough to my position.

Just as the tiger was going to pounce on Rohit, a spell came from the sidelines and destroyed it. The sound caused Rohit to turn back. We both stopped casting at that moment. I saw that the spell had come from Elder Atulya.

Elder Atulya spoke "10 minutes are up. The test is over. You pass Charles. Good battle both of you."

Rohit did not look disappointed. He said "Thank you for the thrilling fight. You are good. I did not expect you to be able to use wandless magic. I would have lost if the fight had continued."

I replied "Thank you for being my opponent in my first Duel. It was thrilling and informative. This is the first time I have seen a wizards using magic for physical reinforcement. I nearly lost in the first attack itself. I could see that you were holding back to allow me a chance to pass. Thank you. I hope we can duel again some other time without the time limit."

The others came and congratulated me for passing. The Elders complimented me and told me that I could come to their buildings in the academy if I wanted to learn from them. Elder Nainesh told me to meet him after the admission process was over since he wanted to speak with me about something important. It intrigued my curiosity and I agreed to meet him later.

Elder Atulya "Lets go back to the Elders Building. We need to complete other admission formalities before you can become an official member of the academy."

I thanked everyone and said goodbye before following Elder Atulya via the floo to the Elders Building.